Working for the Church: Calling or Job?

The discussion below under my post on Kim Clark is evolving toward this topic, which I have wondered about for a long time. During my short stint teaching at the MTC just after my mission, all of the MTC instructors were invited to a meeting with a General Authority. He asked us, “How many of you view your work at the MTC as a calling?” Almost all of the hands in the room were raised.

Around a blog

The Coalition of Former T & S Guest-Bloggers has added another strong member to their ranks. Yes, Elisabeth Calvert Smith (she of the famous spiritual securities-law analogy) is now blogging over at M*. Her first post is a clever LDS take on Aerosmith’s “Love in an Elevator.” It’s an interesting enough read that I’m definitely looking forward to reading Elisabeth’s LDS interpretations of “Walk This Way,” “Rag Doll,” and “Dude Looks Like a Lady.”

Darfur redux

Nick Kristof’s recent column discusses the continuing problem of systematic rape and ethnic cleansing in the Darfur region in Sudan, Africa. (Warning: The column is about the continuing genocide, and Kristof’s descriptions are about as graphic as a family newspaper gets).

Mormon Studies Periodically: Episode I

This first installment features Scott H. Faulring’s article, “An Examination of the 1829 ‘Articles of the Church of Christ’ in Relation to Section 20 of the Doctrine and Covenants,” available here. The long title introduces a careful examination of a fascinating document: the 1829 “Articles of the Church of Christ,” composed by Oliver Cowdery, is a little-known forebear to D&C 20, the 1830 “Articles and Covenants.” Faulring’s thorough treatment includes a discussion of the relationship between the two documents, a close summary of the “Articles,” and a complete holograph photographic reproduction of the handwritten text. The article raises compelling questions about the nature of revelation, the place of bibliographic research, and the role of the Book of Mormon in Latter-day Saint doctrine and practice.

Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan’s Chronicles, published last year, is not so much a memoir or autobiography, but rather a series of snapshots, each drenched in cultural references, that together create a approximation of Mr. Zimmerman’s character. One of those snapshots gives us Dylan living in an apartment in Greenwich Village owned by a mysterious autodidact named Ray. It’s 1960, Dylan is new to New York, and unknown to the burgeoning folk scene in New York. He hasn’t yet written his first song, but he knows about Joseph Smith and the Adam-God theory.

The Church “has not taken a position on the issue of embryonic stem cell research”

The church has corrected a newspaper that had written, “Mormons, for example, oppose abortion, but find some embryonic stem cell research morally acceptable,” with the clarification that, “the Church has not taken a position on the issue of embryonic stem cell research.” They also note that the church has no official position on the moment human life begins. Additionally, the church’s August 2001 “Apostles have not taken a position” statement about stem cell research, which many interpreted as providing tentative support for embryonic stem cell research, has been removed from the church’s website.

The Gospel Benefits of Divorce (or, Why I Wish Divorce was Easier in Latin America)

The requirement of legal marriage is often a big hurdle for investigators in Latin American countries. The reality is that a large percent of the populace lives in common-law marriage. And it is often difficult, and expensive, to change their status. I can’t count the number of times I taught a family on my mission, only to have their unmarried state end up as a fatal hurdle to their joining the church. One thing that I picked up from teaching families in was a healthy appreciation for the gospel benefits of readily available divorce.

Learning from Enrique

Enrique was the kind of member you don’t forget. He was a fifty-something former alcoholic, and a former evangelical Christian. He had given up his drinking, but the jury was still out on whether he had given up his evangelical tendencies. Actually, the jury had come back with a pretty solid verdict: Enrique’s evangelical tics were here to stay. And stay they did. Every time that a speaker mentioned a key concept — “we must have faith,” for example — Enrique would call out “amen, hermano!” He had a loud and beautifully resonant voice, and often after firing off a few amens, he would begin to sway back and forth in a rhythm. Our few long-term members mostly ignored him; newer members would look around, a little disconcerted. Was this what Mormons did? Every few weeks, it seemed, Enrique’s contagious enthusiasm would catch on — usually with the newer converts — and some of the other members of the congregation would join him, until we had a chorus of ecstatic amens punctuating the sacrament talks.

Can Satan give the gift of prophecy?

One of the more interesting stories in the Old Testament concerns Saul and the Ewok Witch of En-dor. The ewok witch calls up a spirit, which foretells the events of the battle which will take place the next day: “The Lord hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand, and given it to thy neighbour, even to David . . . Moreover the Lord will also deliver Israel with thee into the hand of the Philistines: and to morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me: the Lord also shall deliver the host of Israel into the hand of the Philistines.” The events occur as foretold, of course. What does this story tell us? Well, if the witch did not receive this vision from God, but rather from Satan (and our Bible Dictionary explicitly states that this is not a vision from God), then Satan appears to be capable of granting prophetic visions to his followers. Is he?